(1.) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compiler apparatus that converts a source program written in high-level language such as the C language into a machine language program, and more particularly to an optimization directive to a compiler.
(2.) Description of the Related Art
There have been proposed a variety of high-level language compilers for compiling a source program written in high-level language into a machine language instruction sequence (See Japanese Laid-Open Patent application No. 2003-99269, for example).
However, such conventional high-level language compilers are not capable of taking into account the construction of hardware such as cache memory and the like in optimizing machine language instruction sequences for increasing execution speed and the like.
Therefore, in order to generate a machine language instruction sequence that takes into account hardware construction, it has been necessary to generate a program using assembly language and to create an algorithm that takes into account hardware construction, so as to generate a source program based on such created algorithm.
However, there is a problem that an enormous number of man-hours is required to develop a program using assembly language.
Furthermore, it is also a problem that a program written in assembly language provides low asset value because of its poor portability.
Moreover, in the present age in which the scale as well as construction of hardware are becoming larger and more complicated, it is not easy to create, by human hands, an algorithm that takes into account hardware and to carry out performance tuning based on such algorithm.